“I don’t use a prayer book, and I didn’t ask for help.”
“But you need help. Lots of it. I’m sure glad we’re not sharing an apartment. I don’t think I could stand your self-righteous attitude 24/7. You’re so uptight I’m surprised your eyes open in the morning!”
My uptight eyes suddenly stung with tears I vainly tried to blink away. Most people didn’t keep attacking after I made my convictions clear. Julie saw that I was upset and swore.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I quickly wiped my eyes. “Everything you say makes sense except that I believe God controls my future. I can’t abandon my confidence in him. To do that would be to deny who I am as a person.” I pulled a tissue from my purse and blew my nose. “Does that make any sense to you?”
Julie shrugged. “You fanatic religious types are all alike.”
“People judge me because of the things I do and don’t do. But I’m not a mixed-up mess of legalistic rules and regulations. I’m a child of God who wants to live in the freedom from sin Jesus provides through his death on the cross.”
“Okay, okay,” Julie said. “You can step down from your pulpit. My efforts to corrupt you are over for the week.”
This time I didn’t cry. I pressed my lips tightly together before I spoke. “I guess I’ll walk home.”
“No need to get hot and sweaty. I’ll give you a ride. I said I was sorry.”
Partway home, Julie broke the silence. “You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“My Jewish intuition tells me that’s about to change.”
We reached Mrs. Fairmont’s house. Julie stopped the car.
“So, are you going to the office tomorrow?” she asked.
“No. I wouldn’t do anything to try to gain an advantage.”
“Good. I’ll call Vinny. This summer is our last chance to have fun before we have to enter the real world of work.”
I opened the door. “If you go to the beach, use plenty of sun-block.”
“You won’t recognize me on Monday. I may not look Lebanese, but in a couple of days I’ll be able to pass for an Israeli.”
I COULD HEAR THE TV BLARING when I entered the house. I peeked into the den. The TV might be on, but that didn’t mean she was watching it. Mrs. Fairmont’s eyes were closed. She tried to maintain I a schedule, but I’d learned that even though she went to bed early, her sleep patterns were irregular. Twice when I’d come upstairs to the kitchen in the night, she had been awake watching TV. Flip didn’t seem to mind. He matched his sleep schedule to hers. The little dog barked and came over to me for a welcoming scratch behind the ears.
“Mrs. Fairmont,” I announced.
She stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and glanced in my direction.
“Who is it?” she asked with alarm in her voice.
“Tami Taylor. I’m staying with you this summer.”
The older woman’s lapses of short-term memory made my heart ache. I picked up Flip, who licked my chin.
“Flip knows me,” I said as I let the tiny dog lick my chin. “I’m staying in the basement apartment and working for Mr. Braddock’s law firm.”
Mrs. Fairmont stared at me. Generally, it only took a few comments to tether her mind in reality.
“Where’s Gracie?” she asked.
“Gone for the day.”
“Did she let you in the house?”
“No ma’am.” I held up a key. “Your daughter, Mrs. Bartlett, gave me a key.”
Mrs. Fairmont pushed herself up from the chair. “I’m going to call Christine this minute. She has no right giving out keys to strangers!”
I deposited Flip on the floor. This was the most serious spell of confusion I’d witnessed.
“What do you want me to do while you call her?”
“Wait on the front steps would be the polite thing to do,” she answered curtly as she walked unsteadily toward the kitchen. “Proper young women don’t barge into a house uninvited.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Keeping the key in my hand in case she locked the door behind me, I retreated toward the front of the house, but I positioned myself by the hallway door in the green parlor so I could hear the conversation in the kitchen. I wasn’t sure whether Mrs. Fairmont would remember Mrs. Bartlett’s phone number. There was silence for several seconds, then I heard Mrs. Fairmont begin talking to someone about her house key. After a couple of sentences she stopped talking.
“Yes, I took my medicine,” she said. “Gracie always gives it to me.”
A longer period of silence followed.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “Samuel Braddock?”